•Children who grow up in poverty receive as little as 40 hours’ exposure to print material prior to entering school, compared to children of wealthy parents, who received an average of 1000 hours exposure.

•There is an almost 90% chance that a child who is a poor reader at the end of grade 1 will be a poor reader in grade 4.

•Children not reading at grade level by the end of the third grade are at serious risk of never graduating from high school.